Mario Cuomo on Civil Rights

Former Democratic Governor of New York

Preferred color-blind appointments to high positions

In 1977 the NYC mayor's race resulted in a runoff between Ed Koch and Mario Cuomo. I had served with Koch in the Congress, and he asked me to secure the backing of the Coalition of Black Elected Democrats. The group designated me to go and meet with
Cuomo and Koch, and then make a report as to whom it should endorse.

When we met with Cuomo, he took great pains to explain that he was color blind, and therefore could not promise a certain number of positions for blacks in a
Cuomo administration. He said that he himself wasn't even Italian; he was just an American. The very idea that blacks would need particular political support was racist, Cuomo told us.

Years later, when Cuomo was governor, he still couldn't
explain his performance that day. He would joke that the interview was really an apolitical discussion. Meanwhile, [our group was] silently begging for candidate Cuomo to say something, anything, to justify not having to support Ed Koch.